By: Chris Barr
One of our customers recently shared his success story with me and I thought that every pizza shop owner would enjoy it. This story truly highlights the power of print advertising in the restaurant industry.
I recently received a phone call from a pizza shop owner who had an incredible story to share. The call came from “Bud” of Borgen & Dick, LLC – a group that owns a restaurants in the North East. Bud himself runs a pizza business in New Hampshire and when the economic freeze hit in October, his phones went ICE COLD!
The phones were silent and existing customers who ordered almost every week just stopped calling. Everyone just stayed at home and ate as cheap as possible. You’re probably experiencing something similar with your restaurant unless you have been really aggressive in your advertising.
“We are surviving this situation, but I’m tired of getting my clock cleaned by big budget pizza chains with poor service. It ticks me off because not only do we deliver better service, we’re also very low priced.”
I asked him how he was getting the word out. He said he prints black & white menus at Kinko’s for 7 cents each 
and that he and his family drive around town and leave them on doorsteps and pegboards.
He gets a meager trickle of mediocre clients but the numbers just don’t add up.
I said, “Bud, I know how to put you head to head with the big chains, and you’ll win. But you’re going to have to do something you’ve never done before.”
“What?”
“I’ve got a template for a flyer design that’s bold and makes a sensational offer to prospective customers and it’s printed in full color. A totally professional flyer that makes you look every bit as sharp as Dominos or Papa Johns. This allows you to charge more, too.”
“How much?” he asks.
“Four cents a copy, full color.”
“But that’s cheaper than Kinko’s black & white copies. How do you do that?”
I said, “If I told you I would have to kill you. But seriously, for every 1000 flyers you distribute – which costs you $40 – you get 20 to 25 orders! Your average ticket is about $15 each so when you put $40 in you’ll get $300 out.
“Would you spend $40 to make $300?”
“Yes, I would.”
“OK then there’s just one other thing you need to know. Including design and shipping, it’s $600 or so the first time out. After that it’s just $40 a thousand.”EVERY TIME YOU NEED CASH, YOU PUT OUT A FEW HUNDRED FLYERS AND THE MONEY COMES IN. Does that sound like a good way to run your business?”
“Sure does.”
I convinced him to go with it. The first week he used his full-color menus he sold 500 slices in a single day! His biggest day ever! Now he knows exactly what to do to get business next week. Most pizza shops in New Hampshire are suffering, but not Bud.
DON’T BELIEVE ME? CALL ME AND I’LL GIVE YOU HIS NUMBER.
Bud says, “I can’t get over how easy it is! On top of that, your pricing is unbelievable. My competitors are paying more for black and white copies than I’m paying for color! If you ever have a potential customer who is sitting on the fence, have them call me!”
You can have what Bud has: Positive cash flow and a happy family.
Give me a call at 1-800-481-1656 and we’ll discuss it. Or drop me an email and let’s get you out of the doldrums now.
Don’t waste any more time, let’s work together and increase your sales.